


In The Dark

by colorfully_capricous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, College, Her Imperious Condescension, M/M, dystopia?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorfully_capricous/pseuds/colorfully_capricous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You miss Dave. You miss holding his hand and hearing his laugh, the one he only lets out when you're alone. You miss everything about him. He's not gone, of course. You know he misses you just as much. You see him every day. You just can't do anything about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. >John: Try to look normal

**Author's Note:**

> So as first works go, I think this is pretty alright. This is based off of a textpost which I can't find the link to right now. Comments are appreciated, obviously, so... read on, and enjoy.
> 
> Edit: So I think I probably will be continuing this. Expect more chapters in the future, at some point.

>John: Try to look normal

You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re going to get caught. They’re going to catch you, and then what will you do? You’ll lose everything. Your job, your friends, your freedom, Dave. You could deal with losing all those other things, but Dave? You’d rather die than lose him. And if they catch you, you will lose him. So you know you shouldn’t be doing this.  
But you don’t care, because as long as you don’t get caught, it’s worth it.

You remember when this all started. Everything was fine until you were about 15. That’s when Her Imperious Condescension took over. That’s when the Reform started. First they tightened couple age restrictions. Then they made any sort of PDA extremely illegal. Then they set up the Mating System, so that only couples with compatible DNA were allowed to have children. It was only a matter of time before all intimate feelings were banned. They said that attachment can only lead to despair and, in the end, crime and death, and that America was better off without it. In theory, if you really, really forced yourself to think in the same way that they did, that made sense. It was supposed to diminish crime and make everyone happier. In reality, however, the results were the complete opposite. Suicide became an epidemic. They had to have bodyguards and protection 24/7 because of all the death threats. Crime went up because, without people to love and laugh with, life seemed worthless and what else was there to do?

The laws finally stopped increasing when you were just graduating high school, when they banned all forms of affection. By then you already loved Dave more than you could stand. You now had no way of being together. So you went your separate ways. You both went to the same university, but you didn’t live together as you had planned to. You tried to stay away from each other. You tried to move on and focus on your schoolwork. You both tried so hard, but in the end it was impossible. So you started meeting in secret. Only at night, only in the alleys, only when you were sure there was no one watching. You’ve been doing this now for nearly six months, and in that time you’ve only had a handful of meetings.

It’s better than nothing. It’s so, so much better than nothing.

You walk down the sidewalk, trying to look casual. You’re no good at this. You’ve always followed rules, and you’re a crap liar, but this is your only option. You glance around. A police cruiser passes just as you reach the alley where Dave is supposed to meet you. Perfect timing. As soon as it’s out of sight, you take a quick look around to make sure there aren’t any more and slip into the alley. You look around again, this time to make sure there aren’t any people with baseball bats or something ready to kill you and take your money or something. There aren’t, thankfully. That would just be another problem to deal with.

You walk down the alley cautiously. There’s a trash bin down a bit, and you usually meet Dave behind it. It smells, but you deal with it. When you reach the bin, you see someone standing by it, arms crossed and head down. You can barely make out a head of blonde hair and a red hoodie in the darkness, and you smile.

“Dave?”

He looks up and grins.

“John.”

He steps towards you and you embrace him. You bury your nose in his neck, closing your eyes and breathing in. His familiar smell is so comforting. You’ve missed it. This, seeing him again, is what you live for.

He steps back slightly, your hands still around his waist, and takes his sunglasses off, balancing them on the top of his head. You can see a familiar gleam of red. He runs his fingers down your cheek, smiling. “I missed you.”

You lean in and press your lips to his, sighing happily. You’re almost overwhelmed with how much you love this.  
You pull back slightly. “I missed you too.”

Dave smiles again, then turns to look around both sides of the dumpster. He grabs your hand and sits down, pulling you with him. You oblige, cringing at the dirty wetness soaking through your jeans, and curl up next to him. He wraps his arms around you, kissing your head. “John…”  
You close your eyes. “Yeah?”

You feel Dave shaking his head. “Nothing. I just missed you. This.” His usual sarcastic cool-kid cover is gone and his Texan accent is starting to come out. He always gets like that when he’s emotional.

You sit there, curled up in his arms for you don’t know how long, although it must only be a few minutes. You both know you can’t stay here for long.

“John?” Dave breaks the silence.

“Yeah?”

“We could do it, y’know.” You look up at him, already knowing what he’s talking about.

“Do what?”

He takes your hand, rubbing your fingers. “We could leave. We could get on a plane tomorrow and go somewhere else.”

You sigh. “You know it’s not that easy.”

“Well neither is this, John!" Dave almost yelled. "Imagine if we did it, if we managed to get out, then we could be free. We could live together. Don’t you want that?”  
There’s silence for a moment. Dave sighs. “I’m sorry. I know you do. I know it’d be hard. But I can’t do this anymore, John. I can’t go to class and see you and not even be able to talk to you, and I can’t sneak into alleys just to hold your hand when I can’t even enjoy it because I’m constantly making sure we don’t get caught. I miss you, John. I miss this. And it hurts.”

You remain quiet, thinking. You’ve thought about this before. You know it would be so much better if you could just leave, but it’s not that easy. You have to have a reason to leave, and there’s a long and complicated process that goes along with that. They might not let either of you leave, or just one of you, and if you tried to leave anyway they’d put you in prison, indefinitely.

But… he’s right. You hate this. You want to wake up to his smile, not an empty bed. You want to be able to talk to him and kiss him and be with him. So you make a decision.

“Alright.”

Dave sits back. “Alr- what?”

You sit up. “Let’s try it. Let’s leave. You’re right.” Dave just looks at you, a smile growing on his face. “Really?”

You smile and lean forward, kissing him again. “Really.”

You stay there with him for a while longer, curled up in his arms in the dark and the cold and the wetness. So it’s really going to happen. You’re gonna get out, or at least you hope you will. If you make it, though, it’ll be well worth the risk.

Finally, you sit up. “We should go. It’s been too long.” Dave grimaces.

“But I don’t want to go home. Home sucks. You don’t suck.” His grimace turns to a smirk. “Well, only in a good way.”

You shove him, your face burning. “Shut up! Anyway, you know it’s been too long.”

Dave sighs. “Yeah, I know. I just don’t want to leave.”

You grab his hand and stand up. “I don’t either. But we have to.” He stands up and puts his hands on your waist.

“Well, I don’t have to like it.”

He kisses you one last time. You close your eyes and savor it, not knowing when you’ll be able to kiss him again. “I love you.”

He pulls you into a hug. “I love you too.”

Reluctantly, you pull away and smile sadly, then turn and walk away. Behind you, you hear footsteps walking in the opposite direction.

You hope this is all worth it.


	2. >John: Shut off your damn phone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, this will be continued as a chaptered story. I'm still working on formatting the Pesterlogs and I'm hoping to get them to be colored at some point, but for now I apologize. I'll try to update around once a week or so, but I can't guarantee that it'll be a steady schedule.

>John: Shut off your damn phone

The familiar ping that says someone’s messaging you wakes you up. Who’s pestering you this early in the morning? You groan and roll over, grabbing your phone off your nightstand, blinking at the bright light, and see, first of all, that it’s four in the morning. What. You did not sign up for this.

You open Pesterchum and are surprised to see Dave’s chumhandle next to the notification.

TG: sup egbert

You blink. You and Dave had agreed not to use Pesterchum unless it was absolutely necessary, like for school or something.

EB: uh, hey dave!  
EB: why are you pestering me at 4am?  
TG: cuz we have some things to discuss  
EB: what things?  
TG: things

You sigh and get up. You seriously doubt you’ll be getting any more sleep today so you might as well get some coffee. It’s been a few days since you and Dave’s last meeting, and you haven’t been getting much sleep at all. You’ve been too busy thinking about what you decided. You’re trying to make plans, but all you can think about is what will happen if you get caught and – you’ve been distracting yourself with this – what will happen if you’re not caught. You admit you’ve been doing a lot of daydreaming and… well, not a lot of night-dreaming.

EB: come on dave, tell me! you already woke me up :B  
TG: alright well  
TG: i know how were getting out of here

You stop in the middle of the hallway. How could he have figured that out so fast?

EB: what???????? that was fast!  
TG: i have my ways  
TG: ive got more connections than the outlet in a christmas story

You roll your eyes. Dave is a dork.

You continue down the hallway and into the kitchen, typing out a response for Dave.

EB: are you sure we should be talking about this here?  
TG: no worries  
TG: well be fine  
EB: if you’re sure…  
TG: totally sure egderp  
EB: so how are we doing this?  
TG: i know some people

You stare at your phone, pausing in your coffee-preparing. There are other people in on this? Since when?

EB: …you “know some people”  
TG: yeah  
TG: i mean theres more than that  
TG: i obviously know people  
TG: there are specific people that can help us  
EB: who?  
TG: i cant say

You don’t really know how to respond to that. You grab your coffee and go sit on the couch, flipping through the channels until you find Tom & Jerry on. Score.

EB: what do you mean you can’t say?  
TG: i mean i cant say  
TG: it would put them in danger  
EB: well you can’t expect me to just go along with this if you don’t even tell me who’s gonna help us!  
TG: i just  
TG: you have to trust me  
TG: i know what im doing and i wouldnt put you in danger  
TG: you know that

You sigh. You do know that.

EB: yeah, i know.  
TG: youll find out eventually  
TG: speaking of  
TG: we need to go meet them at some point  
TG: when do you want to  
EB: um, i don’t know?  
EB: when do you want to?  
TG: soon  
TG: like today maybe  
TG: is that cool

You try to think, although it’s hard when you’re running off of three hours of sleep and half a cup of coffee. You don’t think you have anything going on today, and if you do… well, this is more important.

EB: yeah, that’s cool :B  
EB: how are we gonna do this?  
TG: we can meet up for coffee  
TG: pretend were just hanging out or something  
TG: ill show you where it is  
TG: well have to walk there  
EB: um, walk where?  
TG: the place where well meet them

You’re starting to get a bit annoyed. He’s being very cryptic.

EB: why aren’t you telling me anything?  
TG: because its not safe to talk about on here  
TG: i know they can only monitor bettybother or whatever its called but you gotta be careful  
EB: grooooooaaaan  
TG: why mr egbert  
TG: are you trying to seduce me  
TG: because its working  
EB: shut up!!!!!!!! :B  
EB: anyway, that sounds good  
EB: i’ll meet you at the starbucks down the road from campus after class?  
TG: sounds like a plan  
TG: see you then egbert  
EB: bye!

You exit out of Pesterchum and look at the time. It’s only been about fifteen minutes since you woke up, and you don’t have class until nine. Maybe you have time to get some more sleep.

 

>Look at your watch

You do that, only to see that time is not going faster as you had hoped, and the 47 seconds since you last checked your watch really was 47 seconds. Sigh. Why can’t stupid class just be over already?

You’re currently in some social science class you don’t remember the name of, listening to the professor drone on about something or other, which just happens to be the class that you share with Dave. It’s also your last class for today. Which means that as soon as this class is over, you’re going to Starbucks with Dave. You’ve been sitting here for way too long and you’d like to go have coffee with your boyfriend-what-boyfriend-I-don’t-have-a-boyfriend, thank you very much. You have a whole six minutes and 23 seconds until class is over, though.

Okay, so maybe that’s not very long. But it’s longer than you’d like.

After six minutes and 23 seconds of long, painful, excruciating minutes of waiting, you’re finally able to leave and you jump up, shoving your stuff back into your bag, and look around for Dave. Of course, you’ve had your eye on him for the entire class, as you always do, so you have no trouble finding him. He’s walking over to you right now.

“Sup, Egbert?”

You can’t help the giant grin on your face. “Hi, Dave!” He gives you a tiny smile, one barely noticeable but still there, and the pair of you start walking.

“How are you?” you ask as you walk outside, doing your best to maintain casual conversation and not throw yourself at him like you so desperately want to. Dave shrugs. He’s a lot better at this than you are.

“’M alright, I guess. You?” You smile again. You seriously can’t help it.

“I’m pretty good.”

Dave nods. “Cool.”

You continue walking in silence, although you can’t help but keep glancing at him. Every time you do, you can see his eyes on you behind his shades, and he quickly looks forwards again whenever your eyes meet. His head moves, just a little bit, every time he does that. You can only tell because he’s so close and you know him so well, and it only makes you smile more knowing that he’s struggling just as much as you are.

After a few minutes you reach Starbucks. It’s less than two blocks from campus, so it’s a short walk that neither of you mind. You walk inside – noting that Dave holds the door open for you because he’s a Southern gentleman in denial, making flesh-eating butterflies erupt in your stomach – and go to find a table while Dave orders your drinks. You can already predict what he’s gonna order. Straight black coffee for himself (because they don’t have apple juice) and sparkling lemonade for you (because you don’t like coffee).

You silently celebrate your success as Dave makes his way back to you and you see what he ordered. Exactly what you thought. Your cousin Jane has nothing on you. You can sleuth with the best of ‘em.

You and Dave don’t talk much as you drink your coffee. Mostly you sit there and try not to stare at each other. Well, you’re trying not to stare at him. He can stare all he wants since no one can see his eyes anyway. You, however, don’t have that luxury, so you take out some notes and pretend to study. It doesn’t really work.

You sit in the coffeeshop for several hours, Dave getting up only to get refills whenever needed so you’re not loitering. By the time Dave finally indicates that it’s time to leave, it’s dark outside and it’s been at least three hours. You’re not really sure why you stayed so long. You make a mental note to ask him that later. You put your decoy notes away and grab the several empty cups sitting on the table, throwing them away on your way out the door.

Dave leads you out and down the sidewalk, holding the door for you again. He’s taking you the opposite way of the place where you usually meet. You’re surprised, although you realize you probably shouldn’t be. You’d assumed that you wouldn’t be going to the same place.

Now that it’s dark, Dave is a little less reserved. He walks closer to you, his shoulder bumping yours and his fingers occasionally brushing against your hand. You feel like you should be nervous about this, but you really don’t care at the moment. You just need to focus on not actually grabbing his hand or something.

You two walk for a while, taking rights and lefts and crossing streets that you don’t remember. Dave still doesn’t talk much. Neither do you. You’re just enjoying being so close to him. Finally, though, you turn into an alley, Dave discreetly checking for police cruisers before he does so. You honestly have no idea where you are, but you trust Dave knows what he’s doing. You hope.

You walk further down the alley until Dave stops and faces the wall. “Dave, why are you-“

“Shhhh, just hang on,” Dave whispers, shushing you. You shut up and look to see what he’s doing. He runs his fingers against the wall, apparently feeling for something, and when he feels whatever he’s looking for, he gives a small grunt and kicks the wall in some kind of pattern. You almost say something but decide to just let him do whatever he’s doing.

Nothing happens for a minute, and you’re about to ask him if he’s gone insane when a brick disappears from the wall. You stop, your mouth open, and stare at it. A pair of eyes appears behind the hole in the wall, and you think you see a glint of purple. “Who is it?”

Dave is quick to answer. “Dave and Dave’s plus-one.”

The eyes scan Dave and then you. “What is the password?”

Dave kicks the wall again. “Rose is a five year old playing secret club and trying to keep Dave out of her couch-cushion fort.” You blink. Rose? Dave’s twin sister Rose? Rose who you haven’t seen since high school?

You’re about to ask about this when you hear a small chuckle. “Close enough. Give me one moment.” The brick is replaced and Dave smirks, apparently pleased with himself.

The hidden door swings open just as you realize that it’s a hidden door. Behind the door is none other than Rose Lalonde, her short white-blonde hair and intelligent purple eyes virtually unchanged in the threeish years since you’ve seen her. She gestures for you both to come in. “Quickly.”  
Dave grabs your hand and pulls you inside, since you’re now unable to do anything because A, you’re too shocked by whatever this is to move, and B, now he’s holding your hand. Rose closes the door behind you and you look around, squinting to see anything. The only source of light comes from an electric lantern that Rose is holding.

There’s not really anything except stairs that lead down. You can see that the walls are plain white brick and the floor and stairs are concrete, and you can see a faint light at the bottom of the stairs, but that’s it. There’s probably four feet of floor between the door and the stairs, which you’re all standing on. Dave is currently hugging his sister. You suppose this is a secluded enough place for him to break his cool-kid cover.

Rose pulls back, her hands on Dave’s shoulders, and smiles. “David. It’s been far too long. I’m so glad to see you, although I wish it weren’t under such grave circumstances.” She turns to you next. “John, how long has it been since we last saw each other? It must have been high school, at least. It’s good to see you again.” She hugs you too, but pulls back when Dave speaks.

“Can we get this show on the road please?”

Rose turns to him and crosses her arms good-naturedly. “Always the impatient one. I was simply greeting your partner and my friend, who is also virtually my brother-in-law. There’s no need to be rude. Yes, David, we can get the proverbial show on the road. Come with me.” She leads you and Dave down the stairs, warning you to be careful. You grasp Dave’s hand again, nervous for whatever you’ll find down there. He squeezes your hand reassuringly, although you can tell he’s nervous too.

At the bottom of the stairs there are three doors; one on each side and in front of you. Rose unclips a keyring from her waist and holds it near the lantern, picking out a particular key from the nearly identical keys on the ring. There must be at least twenty of them, maybe more. She uses that key to unlock the door to the left and pushes it open, walking inside. You and Dave follow.

Over Rose’s shoulder, you can see a sort of… living room? There’s a couch, a table, a fridge, and various scruffy, mismatched rugs covering the cold, concrete floor. There’s also several people in the room; some of them sitting on the couch or chairs, some of them appear to be playing cards at the table. At the sound of the door opening, they all stop talking and turn to look at you. Most of the looks you get are not very friendly. You shuffle closer to Dave.

One of the people playing cards stands up. She has long blonde hair and she looks like someone you wouldn’t want to get in a fight with. You gulp as you see her eyes. One of them is normal, but the other one… you can’t tell what’s wrong with it from this far away, but there’s something wrong with her pupil. It looks like she has several pupils. Before you have time to say anything, she narrows her eyes and looks right at you. You flinch away and move even closer to Dave. He holds your hand tighter.

The girl reaches into her pocket and takes out a small switchblade, flicking it open. You feel your heart racing as you see the cold, shiny metal. “Rose. Who is this?”

Rose doesn’t even flinch. “This is my brother, Dave, and his boyfriend, John. They need help.” The girl takes a few steps towards you.

“I thought we agreed no more escapees, Rose. We don’t have time for this.” You glance at Dave. He seems just as confused as you are. He turns to Rose.

“You mean you didn’t tell them we were coming?” Rose opens her mouth to answer, but before she can the girl points her knife at Dave. You jump and let out a small yelp, suddenly wishing you hadn’t agreed to do this.

“You shut up, this is between me and Rose.”

“Vriska.” Rose says calmly. “I understand that escapees are not the most important thing right now. But-“

The girl, Vriska, steps forward, walking right up to Rose and sneering in her face. “But nothing. We had an agreement. You stop bringing me pity cases, and I let you stay. Escort them out.”

Somehow, Rose is still calm. You feel like you’re going to faint. “I don’t believe that decision is yours to make, Vriska.” At that remark, a few more people stand up, pulling out various weapons. You’re definitely going to faint now. You cling to Dave like he’s a lifeline, and you can see him going pale.

Vriska glares at Rose. “You have less say than me. Now take them out, or I’ll take them out, along with you.” The people, including Vriska, begin closing in on you, Rose, and Dave. You and Dave move closer to the door, but Rose stands her ground. You shouldn’t be here. Why did you agree to this?

You bury your face in Dave’s shoulder. “Why are we here?”

Dave wraps an arm around you protectively. “I’m sorry.”

You shake your head. “I love you.”

Dave turns to whisper to you. “I love you. But I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you.” He steps in front of you, but you don’t let go of his arm. You’re sure this is the end.

You hope that the back of Dave’s head and a girl holding a switchblade isn’t the last sight you see.


	3. >John: Hear the other girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a short chapter, but oh well.

>John: Hear the other girl

“Vriska.”

A calm voice breaks through the chaos. You look up to see another girl standing in the doorway, with short blonde hair the same color as Vriska’s and the same weird eye thing. In fact, she looks pretty similar to Vriska. You wonder if they’re sisters or something.

At the sound of the girl’s voice, Vriska stops approaching you and turns around. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding as her knife lowers.

The girl raises her eyebrows. “Vriska, what are you doing?” You step out from behind Dave and see Vriska cross her arms.

“Rose let in a couple strays. I was just taking care of it.” The girl turns to look at Rose, who steps forward.

“They’re hardly strays,” she says to Vriska, then turns to the other girl. “Aranea, this is my brother and his boyfriend. I do recall informing you of their situation.” The girl, whose name is apparently Aranea, nods.

“You did. Vriska, it’s alright.” You let out a breath you didn’t know you had been holding. Maybe you won’t die. That would be cool.

Vriska puts her hands on her hips and glares at Aranea. “Why was I not told about this?”

Aranea raises her eyebrows. “We’ll talk about this later. Right now, we need to get our guests settled.” She turns to you, Dave, and Rose. “Come with me, please.” It might just be your imagination, but the look she gives Rose seems to be a bit of a warning. Huh.

Either way, you’re glad you’re not going to have your throat slit. You hope. Vriska glares at you as you pass.

You walk through the doorway into a small hallway. Aranea closes the door, then turns to Rose.

“I thought you said you’d wait to bring them. You know this isn’t the best time.” Rose swallows, the only sign that she’s distressed. She and Dave share that quality.

“I know. I am sorry. But I have my reasons for bringing them here.” Aranea opens her mouth to say something, but looks and you and Dave and seems to change her mind. 

“Let me show these two to their room, then we’ll talk.”

Rose nods, and Aranea turns and continues walking down the hallway. You follow her, glancing at Dave. He shrugs. Apparently he doesn’t know what’s going on either. Sigh. You feel like an uninvited guest, which you guess you are.

It’s a somewhat short hallway with doors on the side opposite the room and one door at the end of the hallway. There are numbers on the doors, although most of the numbers are faded and scribbled. There’s nothing on the plain white brick concrete walls, and you can’t help but feel like you’re in some sort of jail cell. Aranea takes you to the last room on the side wall. She knocks twice. “If you two are doing anything, you have exactly four seconds before I open this door.” You hear a muffled noise of panic and a thump. You furrow your eyebrows and look at Dave. He’s chuckling.

Aranea waits four seconds then opens the door. You lean around Rose to see who made the noise. You see a bed, and next to the bed a boy – he’s short, maybe a little bit younger than you, with black hair cut into a wide Mohawk – on the floor. He’s struggling to pull his shirt over his head and being pulled into a wheelchair by a really tall boy with messy black hair and… clown makeup? You think that’s a little weird, but hey. It looks pretty smeared.

At the sound of the door opening, both boys turn to look at you. The short one’s eyes widen when he sees you, Dave, and Rose, and he pulls himself into his wheelchair the rest of the way, wiping frantically at his mouth. “I, uh,” he coughs. “Hi Aranea…” The tall one gives a lazy smile. He seems unfazed.

“What’s up, my motherfuckin’ spider friend?”

Aranea smiles at the two boys. “Are we intruding?” Both boys shake their heads, the shorter one more frantically. They both talk at the same time.

“It’s all good.” 

“Uh, no, we weren’t, uh- sorry…”

Aranea chuckles. “I apologize. Anyway, this is Dave, Rose’s brother, and John, his boyfriend. They’ll be staying here tonight.” She points to the other bed in the room, then turns to address you and Dave. “I assume you two don’t mind sharing a bed?”

You blush. Dave’s quick to answer. “I guess we could deal with it for one night. I’ll wash off the cooties in the morning.” Aranea smiles kindly.

“Then you’ll stay here for the night. This is Tavros,” she gestures to the boy in the wheelchair, “and Gamzee,” the tall boy with makeup. Tavros gives a shy wave, while Gamzee nods.

“Nice to motherfuckin’ meet you guys.”

Aranea steps back. “I’ll leave you four here. I have to get back into the main room. I’ll speak to you two tomorrow. Goodnight Dave, John, Gamzee, Tavros.” She walks back down the hallway, leaving just you, Dave, and Rose standing outside the room. Rose smiles at Dave. “I should follow her. I’m sure she has a few stern words for me, and we have some things to discuss. I’ll see you boys tomorrow.” She gives you and Dave each a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight Dave, John. Sleep well.”

She waves at Gamzee and Tavros, saying goodnight to them as well, and follows Aranea. You and Dave step inside the room, shutting the door behind you. Tavros shifts on his feet, obviously uncomfortable. You don’t blame him, honestly.

Gamzee seems to notice. “I need some more motherfuckin’ Faygo. You wanna come get some of that shit with me, Tavbro?” Tavros relaxes, obviously relieved.

“Yeah, uh, let’s go. Uh, it was nice to meet you guys.” With that, Gamzee gives you a nod and a lazy smile, and wheels Tavros out of the room. They seem nice enough. You look around the room. The walls are still white concrete, but there are mismatched rugs on the floor that someone tried to color-coordinate, so at least it feels more comfortable. There are two beds with a small table between them. The walls are all bare, except for one wall, which has multicolored graffiti scribbled all over it. You see the face “:o)” and the word “honk” more times than you can count. The room’s pretty nice, if not a bit bare.

You turn to Dave, a grin on your face. “Hi, Dave.” He smiles his tiny smile and wraps his arms around your neck.

“Hi, John.”

You lean in and press a kiss to his lips. You feel him smiling against your mouth. Sure, it’s only been a few days since you saw him last, but that’s still a long time.

You reach up and pull his shades off, tossing them on the bed. You love his eyes. He hates them, which is why he wears shades all the time, but you love them. They’re deep and red and unique. You’ve never even seen anyone with eyes as red as Dave’s, at least not without colored contacts. And anyway, his shades cover more than just his eyes. He has freckles, so light you can barely see them, all across his cheeks and his nose and even up to his forehead, that you can’t see because of those dumb shades. His eyelashes are just as pale blonde as his hair, and you love the way they look with his red irises. 

You rest your forehead against his. “I missed you.”

Dave smirks. “It’s only been like four days.”

“I don’t care.”

You stand there for a few minutes, just enjoying him, until you realize how tired you are. You have no idea what time it is, but it’s late. You poke Dave in the chest. “I’m tired. Let’s go to bed.”

You and Dave pull off your jeans, leaving you in boxers and t-shirts, shut off the light, and crawl into the small twin bed. Dave wraps his arms around you. You snuggle into him as much as you can. It’s been years since you’ve been able to do this, and you’re planning to enjoy it as much as you can.

You can feel Dave’s breath against your ear as he whispers. “Night, John.” He presses a kiss to your cheek. Your skin is warm where his lips were.

You smile. “Night, Dave.” You fall asleep quickly, warm and happy, and the last thing you think before you’re out is how much you’ve missed this, even if it could only be for one night.


End file.
